Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch

Welcome toAfrica Great Lakes Democracy Watch Blog.Our objective is to promote the institutions of democracy,social justice,Human Rights,Peace, Freedom ofExpression, and Respect to humanity in Rwanda,Uganda,DR Congo, Burundi,Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya,Ethiopia, and Somalia. We strongly believe that Africa will develop if only our presidents stop being rulers of men and become leaders of citizens. We support Breaking the Silence Campaign for DR Congo since we believe the democracy in Rwanda means peace inDRC. Follow this link to learn more about the origin of the war in both Rwanda and DR Congo:http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Editor's comments:RWANDA'S RPF WANTS FEDERALISM IN EASTERN DRC FOR ITS OWN SURVIVAL

By STEVE HEGE

Since the outset of the M23 rebellion, the government of Rwanda
has provided direct military support to the rebels, facilitated
recruitment, encouraged desertions from the Congolese army and delivered
ammunition, intelligence and political advice to them.

Rwanda, in fact, orchestrated the creation of M23
when a series of mutinies led by officers formerly belonging to the
group’s predecessor, the Congrèsnational pour la défense du people (CNDP), were suppressed by the Congolese armed forces in early May.

But Rwanda continues to deny any involvement and
has repeatedly claimed it was not consulted or given a right of reply to
our investigations. This is not true.

Despite the government of Rwanda’s refusal to
receive us during our official visit to Kigali in May, we purposefully
delayed the publication of the addendum to our interim report in order
to give the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs an opportunity to
clarify the information. But she declined to do so and claimed her
government was not privy to our findings.

Following the publication of the addendum on June
27, we met again with the government of Rwanda in Kigali and took into
consideration its written response to our interim report. However, we
found no substantive element of our previous findings that we wished to
alter.

In our final report, we also documented support
for the rebels from the government of Uganda. Senior Ugandan officials
provided the rebels with direct troop reinforcements in Congolese
territory.

They also supported the creation and expansion of
the political branch of M23 permanently based in Kampala even before
President Joseph Kabila had ever authorised any interaction between the
rebels and the government of Uganda.

Kampala acknowledged this support was indeed
taking place in a meeting with the Group of Experts in early October. An
appointed senior police officer said they would investigate and arrest
those involved.

The DRC government is aware of this support but
has chosen not to denounce it in the hope of convincing the Ugandans
they have more to gain by working with Kinshasa than with Kigali in this
crisis.

What is Rwanda’s motive?

Throughout our work, the question most often posed to us was: Why would Rwanda undertake such a politically dangerous endeavour?

Some of the motives behind this war are as follows:

As per their name, the rebels have claimed that the government reneged on the March 23, 2009 peace agreements.

However, this accord was merely an afterthought to
formalise a bilateral deal between Kinshasa and Kigali which was
predicated on affording the latter with immense influence in the Kivus
in exchange for arresting CNDP chairman Laurent Nkunda, and forcing the
rest of the group to join the national army under the leadership of
Bosco Ntaganda.

M23 has also made many claims about human rights,
even though nine of its members and associates have been designated for
sanctions by both the US government and the UN’s Sanctions Committee,
most for egregious violations of international law, including recruiting
child soldiers and violent land grabs.

Nevertheless, M23 similarly demands good
governance, though they have attacked and appropriated numerous state
assets provided by donors, including recently, 33 vehicles previously
donated to the Congolese police.

M23 also claims they are fighting for the 50,000
Tutsi refugees who remain in Rwanda. A rebellion which displaces over
500,000 can hardly defend the rights of 50,000 refugees.

In recent months, M23 has increasingly claimed
that they want a review of the discredited 2011 presidential elections,
in an attempt to attract the sympathies of a broader constituency and
further weaken President Kabila.

Finally, Rwanda and M23 have said the Congolese
army’s military operations against the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the FDLR
have failed and the group remains a threat. However, not only did the
Rwandan Minister of Defence recently say the FDLR could never threaten
Rwanda, but the rebels are currently at all-time low numbers after
thousands were demobilised by the UN.

Objectively, the greater security threat to Rwanda
is represented by Tutsi political opponents who have fallen out with
President Kagame in recent years.

Rwanda’s regional strategy

Rwandan involvement and orchestration of the M23
rebellion becomes more comprehensible when understood as a determined
and calculated drive to spawn the creation of an autonomous federal
state for eastern Congo.

Prior to the November 2011 elections, a senior
intelligence officer within the Rwandan government discussed with me
several possible scenarios for the secession of eastern Congo.

He said because the country was too big to be
governed by Kinshasa, Rwanda should support the emergence of a federal
state for eastern Congo. He said: “Goma should relate to Kinshasa in the
same way that Juba was linked to Khartoum,” prior to the independence
of South Sudan.

During several internal meetings of M23 for
mobilisation, senior government officials, including the Minister of
Defence’s special assistant, openly affirmed that establishing this
autonomous state was in fact the key goal of the rebellion.

Several M23 commanders and allies have also openly
confirmed this in interviews I conducted as part of the Group of
Experts. Even senior Ugandan security officials also acknowledged this
was the aim of the Rwandans in this M23 war.

One officer, who helped support M23 in
co-operation with the Rwandans, told us: “They’re thinking big ... you
need to look at South Sudan.”

The objective of federalism also helps to explain
in part, the involvement of individuals within the Ugandan government.
If Rwanda achieves its goal, then Ugandans would need to ensure that
their own cultural, security, and economic interests in the eastern DRC
were not jeopardised.

Steve Hege is the former co-ordinator of the
UN Group of Experts on the DRC. The Experts submitted a report to the UN
Security Council pointing to Rwanda's involvement in the DRC crisis.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

AFJN is one of the signatories of this letter
December 10, 2012President Barack ObamaThe White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20500Dear Mr. President:

As
the situation once again dramatically deteriorates in eastern Congo,
the U.S. response to the crisis has patently failed and is out of step
with other Western nations. The United States must take immediate steps
to address meaningfully one of the greatest ongoing humanitarian crises
of our generation. We call on you to appoint a Presidential Envoy to
lead a coordinated U.S. response to the crisis, to support the
appointment of a U.N. Envoy to the Great Lakes, to support the
imposition of sanctions against violators of the United Nations arms
embargo on DRC, and, finally, to cut all military assistance and suspend
other non-humanitarian aid to the government of Rwanda for its support
of the M23 insurgency.

Silence Regarding Rwanda’s Involvement Exacerbating the ProblemOver
the past 15 years, U.S. efforts to prioritize quiet diplomacy to
address Rwandan involvement in eastern Congo have failed to deter
Rwanda’s continued incursions and use of proxy armed groups in the
east.
While Rwanda has legitimate security and economic concerns, these
alone do not justify the repeated violation of DRC sovereignty, the
egregious human rights abuses of their armies and proxy forces, and the
countless violations of the UN arms embargo. Since the M23 was created
in the spring of 2012, U.S. officials continued to place faith in
engaging Rwanda in a constructive dialogue. This approach has clearly
failed to change Rwanda’s policy, as evidenced by the direct involvement
of the Rwandan army in the recent takeover of Goma, as documented by
the United Nations Group of Experts.Read the full letter

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Thank you, Mr. President. First, let me thank you, Mr. President, and
Vice President Kagame, and your wives for making Hillary and me and our
delegation feel so welcome. I'd also like to thank the young students
who met us and the musicians, the dancers who were outside. I thank
especially the survivors of the genocide and those who are working to
rebuild your country for spending a little time with us before we came
in here.

I have a great delegation of Americans with me,
leaders of our government, leaders of our Congress, distinguished
American citizens. We're all very grateful to be here. We thank the
diplomatic corps for being here, and the members of the Rwandan
government, and especially the citizens.

I have come today to
pay the respects of my nation to all who suffered and all who perished
in the Rwandan genocide. It is my hope that through this trip, in every
corner of the world today and tomorrow, their story will be told; that
four years ago in this beautiful, green, lovely land, a clear and
conscious decision was made by those then in power that the peoples of
this country would not live side by side in peace.

During the
90 days that began on April 6 in 1994, Rwanda experienced the most
intensive slaughter in this blood-filled century we are about to leave.
Families murdered in their home, people hunted down as they fled by
soldiers and militia, through farmland and woods as if they were
animals.

From Kibuye in the west to Kibungo in the east, people
gathered seeking refuge in churches by the thousands, in hospitals, in
schools. And when they were found, the old and the sick, women and
children alike, they were killed--killed because their identity card
said they were Tutsi or because they had a Tutsi parent, or because
someone thought they looked like a Tutsi, or slain like thousands of
Hutus because they protected Tutsis or would not countenance a policy
that sought to wipe out people who just the day before, and for years
before, had been their friends and neighbors.

The
government-led effort to exterminate Rwanda's Tutsi and moderate Hutus,
as you know better than me, took at least a million lives. Scholars of
these sorts of events say that the killers, armed mostly with machetes
and clubs, nonetheless did their work five times as fast as the
mechanized gas chambers used by the Nazis.

It is important that
the world know that these killings were not spontaneous or accidental.
It is important that the world hear what your president just said; they
were most certainly not the result of ancient tribal struggles. Indeed,
these people had lived together for centuries before the events the
president described began to unfold.

These events grew from a
policy aimed at the systematic destruction of a people. The ground for
violence was carefully prepared, he airwaves poisoned with hate, casting
the Tutsis as scapegoats for the problems of Rwanda, denying their
humanity. All of this was done, clearly, to make it easy for otherwise
reluctant people to participate in wholesale slaughter.

Lists
of victims, name by name, were actually drawn up in advance. Today the
images of all that haunt us all: the dead choking the Kigara River,
floating to Lake Victoria. In their fate we are reminded of the capacity
in people everywhere not just in Rwanda, and certainly not just in
Africa but the capacity for people everywhere to slip into pure evil. We
cannot abolish that capacity, but we must never accept it. And we know
it can be overcome.

The international community, together with
nations in Africa, must bear its share of responsibility for this
tragedy, as well. We did not act quickly enough after the killing began.
We should not have allowed the refugee camps to become safe haven for
the killers. We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful
name: genocide. We cannot change the past. But we can and must do
everything in our power to help you build a future without fear, and
full of hope.

We owe to those who died and to those who
survived who loved them, our every effort to increase our vigilance and
strengthen our stand against those who would commit such atrocities in
the future here or elsewhere.

Indeed, we owe to all the peoples
of the world who are at risk because each bloodletting hastens the next
as the value of human life is degraded and violence becomes tolerated,
the unimaginable becomes more conceivable. We owe to all the people in
the world our best efforts to organize ourselves so that we can maximize
the chances of preventing these events. And where they cannot be
prevented, we can move more quickly to minimize the horror.

So
let us challenge ourselves to build a world in which no branch of
humanity, because of national, racial, ethnic, or religious origin, is
again threatened with destruction because of those characteristics, of
which people should rightly be proud. Let us work together as a
community of civilized nations to strengthen our ability to prevent and,
if necessary, to stop genocide.

To that end, I am directing my
administration to improve, with the international community, our system
for identifying and spotlighting nations in danger of genocidal
violence, so that we can assure worldwide awareness of impending
threats. It may seem strange to you here, especially the many of you who
lost members of your family, but all over the world there were people
like me sitting in offices, day after day after day, who did not fully
appreciate the depth and the speed with which you were being engulfed by
this unimaginable terror.

We have seen, too, and I want to say
again, that genocide can occur anywhere. It is not an African
phenomenon and must never be viewed as such. We have seen it in
industrialized Europe We have seen it in Asia We must have global
vigilance. And never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence.

Secondly, we must as an international community have the ability to act
when genocide threatens. We are working to create that capacity here in
the Great Lakes region, where the memory is still fresh.

This
afternoon in Entebbe, leaders from central and eastern Africa will meet
with me to launch an effort to build a coalition to prevent genocide in
this region. I thank the leaders who have stepped forward to make this
commitment. We hope the effort can be a model for all the world, because
our sacred task is to work to banish this greatest crime against
humanity.

Events here show how urgent the work is. In the
northwest part of your country, attacks by those responsible for the
slaughter in 1994 continue today. We must work as partners with Rwanda
to end this violence and allow your people to go on rebuilding your
lives and your nation.

Third, we must work now to remedy the
consequences of genocide. The United States has provided assistance to
Rwanda to settle the uprooted and restart its economy, but we must do
more. I am pleased that America will become the first nation to
contribute to the new Genocide Survivors Fund. We will contribute this
year $2 million, continue our support in the years to come, and urge
other nations to do the same, so that survivors and their communities
can find the care they need and the help they must have.

Mr.
President, to you, and to you, Mr. Vice President, you have shown great
vision in your efforts to create a single nation in which all citizens
can live freely and securely. As you pointed out, Rwanda was a single
nation before the European powers met in Berlin to carve up Africa.
America stands with you, and we will continue helping the people of
Rwanda to rebuild their lives and society.

You spoke
passionately this morning in our private meeting about the need for
grassroots effort in this direction. We will deepen our support for
those grassroots efforts, for the development projects, which are
bridging divisions and clearing a path to a better future. We will join
with you to strengthen democratic institutions, to broaden
participation, to give all Rwandans a greater voice in their own
governance. The challenges you face are great, but your commitment to
lasting reconciliation and inclusion is firm.

Fourth, to help
ensure that those who survived in the generations to come never again
suffer genocidal violence, nothing is more vital than establishing the
rule of law. There can be no peace in Rwanda that lasts without a
justice system that is recognized as such.

We applaud the efforts of the Rwandan government to strengthen civilian and military justice systems.

I am pleased that our Great Lakes Justice Initiative will invest $30
million to help create throughout the region judicial systems that are
impartial, credible, and effective. In Rwanda these funds wll help to
support courts, prosecutors, and police, military justice and
cooperation at the local level.

We will also continue to pursue
justice through our strong backing for the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda. The United States is the largest contributor to
this tribunal. We are frustrated, as you are, by the delays in the
tribunal's work. As we know, we must do better. Now that administrative
improvements have begun, however, the tribunal should expedite cases
through group trials, and fulfill its historic mission.

We are
prepared to help, among other things, with witness relocation, so that
those who still fear can speak the truth in safety. And we will support
the War Crimes Tribunal for as long as it is needed to do its work,
until the truth is clear and justice is rendered.

Fifth, we
must make it clear to all those who would commit such acts in the future
that they too must answer for their acts, and they will. In Rwanda, we
must hold accountable all those who may abuse human rights, whether
insurgents or soldiers. Internationally, as we meet here, talks are
underway at the United Nations to establish a permanent international
criminal court. Rwanda and the difficulties we have had with this
special tribunal underscores the need for such a court. And the United
States will work to see that it is created.

I know that in the
face of all you have endured, optimism cannot come easily to any of you.
Yet I have just spoken, as I said, with several Rwandans who survived
the atrocities, and just listening to them gave me reason for hope. You
see countless stories of courage around you every day as you go about
your business here?—men and women who survived and go on, children who
recover the light in their eyes remind us that at the dawn of a new
millennium there is only one crucial division among the peoples of the
Earth. And believe me, after over five years of dealing with these
problems, I know it is not the division between Hutu and Tutsi, or Serb
and Croatian and Muslim in Bosnia, or Arab and Jew, or Catholic and
Protestant in Ireland, or black and white. It is really the line between
those who embrace the common humanity we all share and those who reject
it.

It is the line between those who find meaning in life
through respect and cooperation and who, therefore, embrace peace, and
those who can only find meaning in life if they have someone to look
down on, someone to trample, someone to punish, and, therefore, embrace
war. It is the line between those who look to the future and those who
cling to the past. It is the line between those who give up their
resentment and those who believe they will absolutely die if they have
to release one bit of grievance. It is the line between those who
confront every day with a clenched fist and those who confront every day
with an open hand. That is the only line that really counts when all is
said and done.

To those who believe that God made each of s in
His own image, how could we choose the darker road? When you look at
those children who greeted us as we got off that plane today, how could
anyone say they did not want those children to have a chance to have
their own children? To experience the joy of another morning sunrise? To
learn the normal lessons of life? To give something back to their
people?

When you strip it all away, whether we're talking about
Rwanda or some other distant troubled spot, the world is divided
according to how people believe they draw meaning from life.

And so I say to you, though the road is hard and uncertain, and there
are many difficulties ahead, and like every other person who wishes to
help, I doubtless will not be able to do everything I would like to do,
there are things we can do. And if we set about the business of doing
them together, you can overcome the awful burden that you have endured.
You can put a smile on the face of every child in this country, and you
can make people once again believe that they should live as people were
living who were singing to us and dancing for us today.

That's what we have to believe. That is what I came here to say. That is what I wish for you.

Thank you and God bless you.

Theogene RudasingwaWRITE
TO PRESIDENT CLINTON TO HOLD HIM ACCOUNTABLE TO HIS PROMISES: 1) How
much has the United States government and the international community
sought to bring the Kagame regime to account for its acts 2) How much
has the US government and the international
community helped Rwanda to build the rule of law and fair justice 3)
How much has the United States and the international community remedied
the consequences of genocide? How have they helped victims of genocide
and massacres, both Hutu and Tutsi? 4) Is the world better now in
identifying and spotlighting nations in danger of genocide, war crimes,
crimes against humanity and other serious human human rights abuses? In
Rwanda, DRC and the Great Lakes? 5) Is the United States and the
international community able and willing to act in response to genocidal
threats? Remind him of what is going on in Rwanda and DRC. UN Mapping
Report!

Cynthia NgirabakunziI
will take the time to write to him. Thanks! But I still believe deep in
me that Mr. Paul Kagame has planned his way out. The reason why I
believe it is because he might be a person such like I am facing the
same realities and disturbances of intelligence
given education from the past and that might not be the good
intelligence for many. The vision and consciousness will never be the
same from human to human, depending on the genes and basic family
education.

Cynthia NgirabakunziIts
quiet funny because, at the point of becoming conscious, two of my
sources were also conscious and one of them needed some advice because
he was seeing Kabuga arriving back. And since Kayibanda's time the
Banyamulenge grew a bit like under our protection. Habyarimana came
after, after my grand-mother's suicide. The Banyamulenge grew a bit in
fear and became polygamous. lol

Thursday, December 6, 2012

(WMR)—As the
so-called “Christian” leaders of the Western nations continue to
celebrate the brutal execution of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi at the
hands of Libya’s NATO-armed rebels, the bulldozers and other heavy
equipment are building what is expected to become the permanent military
headquarters for the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) in the heart of the
African continent.
Informed WMR sources report that construction is now underway for a
large U.S. air base near Bangoka International Airport in Kisangani,
Democratic Republic of Congo. The main contractor being employed is a
long-time Belgian businessman, arms dealer, and mercenary in Congo who
once supported the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko.
With Qaddafi’s wealth and aid largesse no longer a factor in blocking
the Pentagon’s push into Africa, the AFRICOM air base in Kisangani will
serve as the hub for U.S. military operations in Africa, with the
primary mission being the protection of U.S. oil and mining interests
that are tasked, along with AFRICOM, with the securing of African oil,
natural gas, precious metals and gems, and rare earth minerals from
control by China.
The northern regional headquarters for AFRICOM is planned for an
annex to the new Tripoli International Airport, a project begun by
Qaddafi to turn Tripoli into the major air hub for Africa.
The CIA and its George Soros-funded “democracy manipulators” have
gotten behind Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the only African
leader who has invited AFRICOM to set up its headquarters and main base
in her country. For that reason, the CIA, National Endowment for
Democracy, and Soros’s network of election and media manipulators have
descended on Monrovia to ensure that Johnson Sirleaf is elected in the
second round of presidential voting over her opponent Winston Tubman.
The Liberian opposition has already claimed massive vote fraud by
Johnson Sirleaf, a recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. AFRICOM is
looking at Liberia as the regional West African headquarters for
AFRICOM, with Tripoli International Airport serving as the North African
headquarters, Addis Ababa as the Horn of Africa headquarters, and
Botswana as the southern African headquarters.
African nations that have received large aid grants and subsidies
from Qaddafi and which now stand to suffer economically—Niger, Mali,
Burkina Faso, and Chad—are now being offered standard usurious World
Bank aid grants with the provision that they succumb to the dictates of
AFRICOM and Western multinational firms.
The U.S. base construction activity was tipped off in a leaked State
Department cable, dated February 2, 2010, from the U.S. embassy in
Kinshasa to the Department of State, with copies to the CIA; Defense
Intelligence Agency; US European Command in Vaihingen, Germany; and the
Joint Analysis Center at Royal Air Force Base Molesworth, UK—a major
U.S. intelligence base. With the subject of “A U.S.-trained Infantry
Battalion: Cornerstone of GDRC National Defense Strategy?” the cable
states: “A USG [U.S. government] effort to construct a training facility
in Kisangani to train a professional light infantry battalion appears
to be a major cornerstone of developing the Kisangani zone. Construction
of the training center continues, with phase II training scheduled to
commence at the facility on February 17. Cooperation with the Kisangani
area military and political officials has been far better than expected.
A local contractor showed poloff the blueprint for a planned new
presidential retreat near Kisangani, an indication that the President
[Kabila] may plan to spend more time in this strategic city.”
The “local contractor” whom the U.S. embassy “poloff” [political
officer] met, was, according to our sources, the Belgian weapons
smuggler who previously worked for Mobutu, the dictator installed by the
CIA after the assassination of Congolese nationalist Prime Minister
Patrice Lumumba in 1961.
The cable continues: “The USG program, implemented by AFRICOM and
private contractors, called for a multi-phase training regimen beginning
with FARDC [armed forces of the DRC] officer and non-commissioned
officer leadership and staff training followed by battalion maneuvers
integrating junior soldiers.”
The cable then proceeds the describe what was billed as a training
facility but what, in fact, will become a massive military air base and
AFRICOM’s continental headquarters:
“(C) The training installation, currently referred to as Camp Base, is situated 10 kilometers northeast of Kisangani city center along the main road leading from the Kisangani International Airport.
The site is approximately two kilometers from the main road, connected
by a hard-packed red dirt road at the intersection of which is a
squad-sized 10-person canvas tent with cots for FARDC military police
who maintain internal security. Local contractors with FARDC engineer
support constructed the road, which is capable of two-way traffic at
speeds of between 60–80 kilometers per hour and remains passable even
during heavy rains. Camp Base is a rudimentary site with ongoing
renovations and new construction projects. Engineers razed approximately eight buildings in various KINSHASA 00000031 002 OF 003 stages of disrepair in addition to leveling terrain
for bivouac sites. Clearing of tall grasses and clumps of trees
uncovered colonial roads, two of which were refurbished for use as
interior roads. The physical plant will eventually consist of a bivouac
site with cement floors, an internal cantonment area for family members
accompanying soldiers-in-training, a firing range, and an
administrative building for instructors. Another portion of the site
houses an agricultural project that will enable the training center to
produce their own provisions, thus removing a potential source of strain
between soldiers and the nearby community.”
The cable also reveals that the Americans are masking their base
construction operations by using local, for-hire transportation rather
than official military or diplomatic vehicles: “USG visitors and
American contractors use local for-hire vehicles at that remote
location”
No matter how much the U.S. has tried to hide the massive base
construction project from the locals, the cable also reveals that the
local residents of Kisangani have not been fooled: “(SBU) During
poloff’s visit to Kisangani, Mayor Guy Shilton Baendo Tofuli Molanga
said he welcomed the training site on the outskirts of his city. There
have been no problems with the recently arrived officers and NCOs,
though some in local civil society misperceive (and some, perhaps,
mischievously so) Camp Base as a U.S. military installation.”
The CIA Kinshasa station chief, known in the cables as “poloff,”
believes that it is “mischievous” for the true nature of Camp Base to be
revealed.
However, the remainder of the “smoking gun” cable reveals the entire
base operation, along with the name of the Mobutu-era businessman who is
building the AFRICOM headquarters in the jungle.
“Poloff noted that the U.S. training program emphasizes citizen
skills as well as soldier skills and suggested the Camp Base flag pole,
which naturally flies the Congolese flag, should be extended to visibly address concerns of the surrounding population.
Orientale Province Governor Medard Autsai Asenga’s assistance resolved a
politically sensitive problem: cutting the grass at the airport. Only
one runway met safety specification standards for takeoff and landing of U.S. military cargo aircraft,
but that runway was overrun with undergrowth. Airport authorities
rejected USG requests to clear the airstrip citing understaffing and
competing priorities. Governor Autsai personally intervened with the
administrators resulting in an airfield able to receive USG planes with
necessary equipment to complete a fully operating base.
The full contingent would also exceed field expedient methods of
sanitation, leading to a local contract for mess and latrine facilities
with the owner of a wide-ranging local enterprise, BEGO-Congo.
(C) BEGO-Congo is owned by Jean-Marie Bergesio, a Belgian and life-long resident of the DRC.American contractors and USG officials stay at his atmospheric hotel in Kisangani.Bergesio
is well connected in provincial politics and has an adopted Congolese
son well-placed in the national police headquarters in Kinshasa
contributing to both police protection and political access.
Indeed, an American contractor in Kisangani showed poloff photos of a
site under construction by Bergesio for President Kabila. Once
completed, the sprawling complex would be a presidential retreat
approximately 10–15 kilometers upriver from Kisangani.”
Known before independence as Stanleyville, Kisangani is an historic
city where the Lingala-speaking and Swahili-speaking regions of the
Congo converge. Until recently it was also the lynchpin of the nation’s
economy and served as Kinshasa’s main nexus to the eastern provinces
because it is home to the Congo River’s last port before the river is no
longer navigable. To be truly effective, the plan requires currently nonexistent force projection and/or air reconnaissance assets.”
There is one fly in the ointment for the AFRICOM plans. Apparently,
Rwanda’s U.S.-installed client-dictator, Paul Kagame, is not keen on
seeing AFRICOM located in the DRC. Kagame has, for well over a decade,
been the Pentagon’s point man and contract pass-through (with a handsome
percentage) for U.S. military operations in the DRC. Because of
Kagame’s meddling in AFRICOM’s plans, the CIA recently decided that it
is time for Kagame to be overthrown in a coup. However, Kagame’s use of
the Rwandan genocide to burnish his international public relations and
“human rights” credentials has earned him powerful friends in the
Holocaust arena and the Israel Lobby/Jewish community. For that reason,
the CIA has contracted with a well-known Mossad front company with
offices in the Georgetown area of Washington, DC, and close links to the
American Jewish Committee and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the
White House Public Liaison Office to organize the deposing of Kagame
without a push-back from Kagame’s influential Jewish friends in
Washington and New York political, financial, and media circles.

Sources close to Rwandan rebels inform AfroAmerica Network that Rwandan
rebels have vowed to continue attacking the Rwandan government Defense
Forces (RDF) after they successfully launched attacks on the Rwandan
army in Mutura, Northeastern Rwanda, on November 27, 2012.

The attack, first reported by AfroAmerica Network (see our arti

cle
Rwandan Rebels Attack RDF in Mutura; UN Expresses Intention to Sanction
Rwandan Leaders of November 27, 2012), surprised both the Rwandan
military leaders and international observers and United Nations experts,
who has suggested that the Rwandan rebels were a spent force.
According to the rebels and independent sources, the rebels surprised
the Rwandan Defense forces troops stationed in Mutura about to deploy to
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) around 2:00 AM on NOvember
27, 2011. The rebels attacked into three columns, one blocking the road
between Mukamira and Gisenyi to prevent reinforcements, another close to
the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in an area known
as Kabuhanga, whereas the last one attacked a military outpost in the
village of Cyanzarwe. Given the long distance among the three areas, it
appears the rebels had been inside Rwanda for a while and had very good
coordination.

In the first wave of attacks, Rwandan rebels
killed and wounded tens of Rwandan defense forces. The casualties in
Rwandan government troops were confirmed by AfroAmerica Network sources
within RDF. Heavy fighting ensued, sending population into hiding and
pushing others to flee the area. Right before the combats, infiltrated
rebels had warned the civilians to stay indoor, if and when they hear
shootings. Sources within the rebels say that after the fightings,
they returned in undisclosed locations inside Rwanda. “We accomplished
what we wanted and beyond our goals, ” the sources added. Asked
about their specific goals, the sources said they cannot provide details
at the moment, except saying that the goals included capturing advanced
weapons and equipment owned by Rwandan Defense Forces and other
logistics, which, according to the sources, were reached. Asked
whether they lost the 6 fighters as the Rwandan military and political
leaders claimed, the rebels said that “in war, casualties are possible,
but Rwandan Defense Forces military leaders know they are lying to the
population.”

“We are ready and determined. There is no more
turning back,” the rebel sources said. Whether it is bravado or real,
the incoming days will tell. For now, the rebel sources have vowed
to continue the attacks on Rwandan Defense Forces. If this materializes,
it may be another complication of an already chaotic situation in the
Great Lakes Region of Africa.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

We
have a serious problem here. The US government is willing to go all the
way down to the gutter to protect its closest African ally Rwanda.

Their reasoning is beyond comprehension. This is the same thing they
said in 1997 when Roberto Garreton of Chile documented the massacre of
refugees in Congo by the Rwandan military, the same excuse they said
during the two Congo wars, the same thing they said when Rwanda was
caught supporting Laurent Nkunda in 2008, the same thing they said when
the UN Mapping report was blocked in 2010 by the US saying that possibly
genocide may have occured in Congo, and it is still the same thing they
are saying now.

For 16 years... they have said this... and now
over 6 million people have died in the Congo. Until when are we going
to keep doing this?

"But Rice pushed back, reasoning that any
move to sanction Rwandan leader Paul Kagame would backfire, and it would
be better to work with him to find a long-term solution to the region's
troubles than punish him. "Gerard, it's eastern Congo. If it were not
the M23 killing people it would be some other armed groups," she said,
according to one of three U.N.-based sources who detailed the exchange.
The U.S. mission declined to comment on the meeting, which was
confidential."